ERIE — The Bureau Valley Storm led the Galva Wildcats for nearly 14 and a half minutes straight in the second half in the fifth-place game of the Warkins Cardinal Girls’ Classic held at Erie High School.

Bureau Valley couldn’t fend off the pesky Wildcats as Galva senior guard Rachel VanDeVelde hit a jump shot at the elbow to down the Storm 37-36 with eight seconds left in the game to take fifth place during the tournament.

“There were different things we could have done sooner than the end of the game but I think the girls played their hearts out tonight, and they were playing for a bigger purpose than to just win this basketball game tonight,” Bureau Valley coach Tiffany Gonigam said. “Two weeks ago we lost to this team by 10 points or more, and tonight they came out and played hard and accomplished what we wanted to do. I told them I wouldn’t be disappointed in the outcome as long as we played as hard as we could.”

The Storm were led by senior guard Helena Osk Arnadottir, who created easy offensive opportunities for the storm off of steals and excellent entry passes for easy buckets. She also lead Bureau Valley with 11 points.

“She (Osk Arnadottir) did a wonderful job. She’s a really quick player and can get a lot of steals and those are the things that we need to turn into points, it seems like a lot of our turnovers are converted into points for the other team, and that’s what we need to start doing,” Gonigam said.

Bureau Valley led by as many as five in the fourth quarter but couldn’t keep the Wildcats offensive in check long enough to hold onto the win. The Wildcats would steadily chip away at the Storm lead until they cut the Storm lead to 36-35 when Galva senior Katie Klein would grab a rebound and put it back in with 45 seconds left in the game.

A late turnover with 21 seconds left would doom Bureau Valley with VanDeVelde taking advantage of the turnover, sinking a 12-foot shot with 8 seconds remaining.

“We came in this week and won some really close games so we can’t let this one bother us,” said Gonigam.

It was back and forth early as both teams traded baskets and leads throughout the first half. Galva took an 18-17 lead into the half on an easy layup by VanDeVelde with 25 seconds left in the half.

Notes: Bureau Valley finished with a 3-2 record during the tournament and was led by senior center Nicole Bornsheuer, who was selected by coaches and members of the media to be on the All-Tournament Team.

“She and the team had a very good game on Thursday against Rockridge. I think that was probably our first game that we thought to ourselves that we could do something big, they’re (Rockridge) out there playing for the championship tonight,” Gonigam said. “We knew that would be a big game for us and (Bornsheuer) came out with 15 points and 17 rebounds and just played the game of her career. She’s a senior and played hard for three years on varsity and I feel like she’s beginning to see the rewards or her hard work this year.”